[Brome, Alexander], a cavalier, writer of songs and lampoons instinct with wit, whim, and spirit; and of his songs some are amatory, some festive, and some political (1626-1666).
[Brome, Richard], an English comic playwright, contemporary with Ben Jonson, and a rival; originally his servant; his plays are numerous, and were characterised by his enemies as the sweepings of Jonson's study; d. 1652.
[Bromine], an elementary fluid of a dark colour and a disagreeable smell, extracted from bittern, a liquid which remains after the separation of salt.
[Bromley] (21), a market-town in Kent, 10 m. SE. of London, where the bishops of Rochester had their palace, and where there is a home called Warner's College for clergymen's widows.
[Brompton], SW. district of London, in Kensington, now called S. Kensington; once a rustic locality, now a fashionable district, with several public buildings and the Oratory.
[Bröndsted, Peter Olaf], a Danish archæologist; author of "Travels and Researches in Greece," where by excavations he made important discoveries; his great work "Travels and Archæological Researches in Greece" (1780-1842).
[Brongniart, Adolphe], French botanist, son of the succeeding, the first to discover and explain the function of the pollen in plants (1801-1876).
[Brongniart, Alexandre], a French chemist and zoologist, collaborateur with Cuvier, born at Paris; director of the porcelain works at Sèvres; revived painting on glass; introduced a new classification of reptiles; author of treatises on mineralogy and the ceramic arts (1770-1847).
[Bronte] (16), a town in Sicily, on the western slope of Etna, which gave title of duke to Nelson.
[Brontë], the name of three ladies, Charlotte, Emily, and Anne, daughters of a Yorkshire clergyman of Irish extraction: Charlotte, born at Thornton, Yorkshire; removed with her father, at the age of four, to Haworth, a moorland parish, in the same county, where she lived most of her days; spent two years at Brussels as a pupil-teacher; on her return, in conjunction with her sisters, prepared and published a volume of poems under the pseudonyms respectively of "Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell," which proved a failure. Nothing daunted, she set to novel writing, and her success was instant; first, "Jane Eyre," then "Shirley," and then "Villette," appeared, and her fame was established. In 1854 she married her father's curate, Mr. Nicholls, but her constitution gave way, and she died (1816-1855). Emily (Ellis), two years younger, poet rather than novelist; wrote "Wuthering Heights," a remarkable production, showing still greater genius, which she did not live to develop. Anne (Acton), four years younger, also wrote two novels, but very ephemeral productions.